A 66-year-old Black Country man who had just been viciously beaten in his own home told a paramedic only hours before he died that he did not know why he had been attacked, a court heard.

Joshua Miller was slashed and battered in his house by two men who wrongly believed he had sexually molested the mentally disabled daughter of a friend, the court heard.

The murder trial jury were told that the men used a curved kitchen blade and a heavy gas bottle in the brutal attack.

Mr Miller had let the men into his home in Wellington Road, Dudley, at 3am on January 13 before he was assaulted. Lee Farley, a paramedic with the West Midlands Ambulance Service, told the court yesterday that he found Mr Miller battered and scared when he entered his house.

He said: "I went up to him and asked him if he was okay. He seemed quite frightened and put his hands up in a defensive motion. I had a conversation with him on the way to hospital because I was trying to get a better idea of what happened.

"I asked him who had done it but he said he did not know. He said there had been a knock on his door at about 3am and when he opened it there were two men standing there and that they started on him straight away.

"He said he had been punched and kicked and when I asked him what sort of weapons they used he said he did not know.

"He indicated a weapon about eight to ten inches long and said it had a blade and was round or rounded. He was seriously injured and I had to get him to hospital straight away. He was given oxygen because of his loss of blood and level of shock.

"My main concern was to treat him and get him to hospital quickly and in as good a condition as possible. I asked him why all this had happened and he said he did not know."

Before the court were Philip Tolley (46) of Duncan Edwards Close, Philip Evans (36) of Osprey Drive and Trevor Bate (32) of Holland Street, all Dudley.

They denied the murder of Mr Miller who died several hours after the attack.

The three men and Amy Pearson (19) of Osprey Drive, Philip Cooper (38) and his wife, Susan (37), both of Maughan Street, and Lorraine Tolley (50) of Duncan Edwards' Close all Dudley, pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice.